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Tilde notation maps to the original URLs by using IIS URL rewrite in ASP.NET Web Pages Razor V3

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This article helps you resolve the problem where tilde (~) notation embedded in Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) elements in Web Pages Razor V3 maps to the original URLs by using the Internet Information Services (IIS) URL rewrite.

Original product version:   ASP.NET
Original KB number:   2905164

Symptoms

In Microsoft ASP.NET Web Pages Razor V3, the tilde (~) notation embedded in the HTML elements such as <A/>, <SCRIPT/>, or <LINK/> map to the original URLs by using the IIS URL rewrite. For example, when the requests under asp.net/content are rewritten to the URL under asp.net, the href attribute in <A href='~/content/'/> is resolved to /content/content/ instead of to /. Therefore, the pages in Web Pages Razor V2 may not work correctly after you upgrade to Web Pages Razor V3 or ASP.NET Model-View-Controller (MVC) 5.

Cause

This issue occurs because the behavior of tilde notation in URLs is changed in Web Pages Razor V3 for consistency with ASP.NET MVC. In ASP.NET MVC, the tilde notation in the Url.Content method or the Html.ActionLink method produces the original URLs regardless of the IIS URL rewrite rules.

However, in Web Pages Razor V2, the tilde notation in URLs maps to the rewritten URLs when the IIS URL rewriting module is enabled. For example, when the requests under content.asp.net are rewritten to the URL under asp.net/content/, the href attribute in <A href='~/book/'/> is resolved to /content/book/ . In Web Pages Razor V3, the same href attribute is translated into /book/, which is the original URL in the browser.

Resolution

To resolve the tilde notation to the rewritten URLs by using the same behavior as in Web Pages Razor V2, set the IIS_WasUrlRewritten context to false in each Web page or in Application_BeginRequest in Global.asax for the global setting as follows:

protected void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Context.Items["IIS_WasUrlRewritten"] = false;
}

Note

The change of the IIS_WasUrlRewritten context affects the tilde notation not only in the HTML elements, but also in the MVC helper methods. For example, if it is set to false, the tilde notation in Url.Content and Html.ActionLink returns the rewritten URLs.

More information

For more information about the Razor syntax and about some related MVC methods, go to the following websites: